After compliments, for they had had dealings with each
other before: 'You've been driving Abdullah's stock again,' said the
Englishman.
'I should think I had!' was the hot answer. 'He lifts my camels and
scuttles back into your territory, where he knows I can't follow him for
the life; and when I try to get a bit of my own back, he whines to you.
He's a cad - an utter cad.'
'At any rate, he is loyal. If you'd only come in and be loyal too, you'd
both be on the same footing, and then if he stole from you, he'd catch
it!'
'He'd never dare to steal except under your protection. Give him what
he'd have got in the Mahdi's time - a first-class flogging. You know he
deserves it!'
'I'm afraid that isn't allowed. You have to let me shift all those
bullocks of his back again.'
'And if I don't?'
'Then, I shall have to ride back and collect all my men and begin war
against you.'
'But what prevents my cutting your throat where you sit?
'For one thing, you aren't Abdullah, and - - '
'There! You confess he's a cad!'
'And for another, the Government would only send another officer who
didn't understand your ways, and then there would be war, and no one
would score except Abdullah.
